Do you believe in an eternal soul...?

Or is the "I" in each of us just a matter of gray matter and how ours is wired together?

I'm of the latter persuasion- when we die, we cease.

Why would the body resurrect without a soul?

or Return of the Living Dead?

it's all a secret government/army plot...

my mind is still pure.

and no soul w/o body. Don't believe in a soul without a body... is all

because a soul is that which transcends the physical.

As in visions or bilocation. just sayin'

I don't have to "believe."

The existence of the eternal soul has been proven to me as a matter of undisputable fact.

:)

i'm curious.

I hesitate to post the story, although I think I may have posted it here months ago.

But even if I were to relay the experience to you, my hearsay statements wouldn't amount to proof in your mind; nor should they.

Take my testimonial for whatever it is worth to you: It has been proven to me, beyond all doubt, that our souls survive our physical existence, here on Earth.

especially at very stressful times.
and in the past, i've taken any number of powerful mind-altering substances- but i've always come back to ground zero.

we don't survive ourselves-

that being said- i hope i'm wrong. and that you're right.

But what happened to me wasn't in my mind. It was in the physical world, with a witness.

Read me, and believe me, when I tell you that our souls survive after death.

and no offense, but i didn't/don't belive any of them either- i was raised in the lutheran church, missouri synod- the "show me" synod... so you'd have to "show me"

100%

Like you, I have never been one to have blind faith in anything, especially just because someone told me to. What happened to me, I didn't ask for.

B-)

I think that something which carries some memory, carries on. I think this because of intense, personal experience. It's not something I would expect anyone else to base his or her own belief on, but it's also not something I really care to argue with anyone about. Call it a theory - it's the working explanation I have for what I've experienced. So far, the model of a "soul" or non physical, persistent carrier of memory works better than any other model I've tried to use to explain my own experience, so I'll stick with it.

I wouldn't want to call my own experience incontrovertible proof of anything, mostly out of moral dishonesty. I like the doubt. Doubt is comforting. When the implications get too heavy, I can shrug and say "But, this model of a 'soul' might be totally bogus". For a person of faith, that could be a crisis or a sign of weenie-ness. So I'm a spiritual weenie. Big woop. It gets me through the day :-)

without question.

:silly:

n/t but to say I love that movie.

:hi:

n/t but to say I love that movie.

jim carey and kate winslet

Here's my preamble: I'm an atheist.

I will return to the consciousness I possessed prior to my first memory. I think it's as natural as an atom moving from an organic molecule to an inorganic molecule.
What worries and concerns did I have prior my your birth? The afterlife is a return to that sad state. I love you all and all I can do during my stay is to help my kind.

Just sayin', is all.

the 'whole thing' may be the random, synaptic firing of a dreaming, high functioning rama god anyhow.

but me, imo? put me down for: eternal soul...

:hi:

:hi:

the light goes off.

Just lots of brain. Though the word just does it disservice. The brain is pretty amazing.

And it doesn't matter what I or anyone believes; beliefs don't bring things into existence.

I'm making blender drinks tonight with Meyer's Rum. Here's to life before death!!

because I don't just "believe" in things without some understanding, and I have seen no personal evidence of a soul. I do, however, accept the distinct possibility that there may be one.

We'll all find out for sure some day.

nothing can be eternal-not even the universe.

Perhaps our consciousness is energy that lives on?

It is energy and chemical activity coursing through our brains in a specific pattern. The energy may not disipate in the universe but it goes towards entropy over time. And when we die there is no longer any structure providing the order in which to maintain the pattern that is our mind. Entropy takes over and we cease to be a sentient being.

My soul has visited earth many times since it's beginning as I am a very old soul.

who was a merry old soul...

at times...

I also wouldn't presume to completely define it in narrowly defined "religious" terms because I think it's beyond an understanding to which our minds are capable of. I think there's more, but I don't assume I could possibly understand exactly what that more is. There is though, an energy with is us all, and since energy itself is neither created or destroyed, I look upon our beings as something beyond the chemical reactions that take place within our bodies.

I do, but I'd have to go deeply into metaphysics to state why, and a general forum is not the place to explore it. (It has to do with the subjective reference in space-time.)

In other words, I will not stay me when I die. My individuality will blend again into the greater life force that is All, but will not be distinguished as me. The only place my spirit will remain alive as me is in the memories of those still living. And because they have those memories, those people can draw on my spirit anytime they wish.

I believe whatever happens in the physical world is reflected in the metaphysical, and vice-versa. So just watching the life cycles of deciduous trees tells me all I need to know about this life and also the "other side."

For example, when an individual leaf falls to the ground, it decomposes and becomes a part of something much larger. And yet its energy brings new life....the grass, the saplings, etc.

Nature is always teaching us everything we need to know, in a form our senses can absorb.

We are so vastly limited by our 5 senses that I tend to discount any theory that says that only what we can perceive is all that is happening at any one moment.